Thank you to everyone who reviewed! It's amazing to see people being curious about how it goes on.

This chapter is a very short one. It also officially ends season one, so after this we can finally concentrate more on character development and relationships now that it's clear that this is indeed the apocalypse.


"Where could he have gone?" Haley said as she and Charlize continued to run through the building.

"I don't know... I don't know," Charlize was shaking her head violently, trying desperately to recreate Nick's movements. Judging by the open door of the cage, Charlize and Haley had quickly decided that everyone inside must have escaped rather than all of them being taken by the soldiers. Before they had moved on to look for Nick, they had freed all the other people from the rest of the cages, giving them a fighting chance to flee from the masses of infected.

They came up to another stairwell and were about to run upstairs when Haley grabbed Charlize's wrist, effectively stopping her. She motioned for her to be quiet.

There were voices coming from one of the lower floors. Charlize nodded and they turned around and headed downstairs instead, following the noises. Charlize's heart was beating rapidly in her chest. They needed to find Nick quickly; the soldiers wouldn't be able to hold off the mass of the dead for long, some of them must already be inside.

As Charlize and Haley came closer to reaching the bottom floor they were able to make out the voices more clearly. There were sounds of thumping as well, as if someone was trying to break through a door. If it weren't for the voices Charlize would have assumed it would be walkers.

"No, Nick!" a female voice exclaimed and Charlize's heart made a leap in her chest. It was Madison's. She sounded alarmed, and when Charlize turned around the last landing of the stairs she could see why.

It wasn't just Madison. There were Travis, Ofelia and Daniel as well. Travis used a bolt-cutter to hit the handle on the double doors to the left corridor, and Madison was standing in front of the left door, pressing her hand against the small window.

Charlize' heart-rate quickened as she saw why they were trying to break the door; Nick was standing on the other side. He couldn't get through because they didn't have a key-card. As she hurried down the last of the steps she saw that behind him was a mass of walkers, closing in on him.

"Move!" Charlize shouted at Travis who was blocking the card reader next to the door. He obliged immediately and took a step to the left. Charlize fumbled to get her key-card out of the pockets of her scrubs and swiped it through the reader. The little light turned red. The door didn't open.

No, no, no, Charlize cursed in her head. This was the worst time for the reader to malfunction. She swiped again. Red. With shaking hands she lowered the card to her pants and wiped it, her eyes glancing up through the window at the door. The dead people were dangerously close to Nick, five more seconds and they would reach him.

"Hurry!" she heard Madison shout behind her.

She raised the card and swiped it through the reader again, with more force than was necessary, but it worked. The light turned green. Yes! Before she knew it, Nick was bolting through the door, but to her surprise, a second man followed him. He was very tall and had dark skin, and he was wearing a very expensive looking three piece suit. Travis tried to close the door behind them, but the infected had already reached it.

"Up!" Haley instructed and everyone ran up the stairs after her. Haley was running first, taking two steps at a time, leading them away from the threat. Nick and Madison followed right after her, then the man in the suit, Daniel and Ofelia; Travis and Charlize made up the rear.

Haley led them up two flights of stairs and then through a corridor to the right. Charlize realized she was taking them back to their improvised emergency room. They were still keeping up a light jog until they reached another double door. Charlize closed it behind her, and the lock clicked into place.

For a moment they stood there silently, catching their breath. Madison was the first one to move. She walked up to Nick and pulled him into a tight hug. He reciprocated the movement and buried his head in her shoulder. The next person to move was Daniel Salazar. He faced Charlize, his mannerisms urgent.

"Where is Griselda?"

Charlize heart dropped. For a moment she had forgotten that his wife had been at the compound as well, had forgotten her lifeless body in the cot, her bleeding forehead.

At her fathers words, Ofelia walked towards Charlize as well. Her long, dark hair was held up in a ponytail, and she was wearing a black cardigan over a gray shirt. Charlize looked from Ofelia back to Daniel, contemplating how to tell them. Then, she started slowly shaking her head.

"I'm sorry."

"No, no!" Ofelia exclaimed, her voice desperate at the realization of what Charlize meant. Her face dropped and tears started running down her cheeks.

"What happened?" Daniel asked. His face was stern, but there was no anger in his voice.

"Dr. Exner had to amputate the foot, but it was too late. She didn't survive the septic shock that followed," Charlize explained.

Ofelia took a step closer to her. There were still tears in her eyes, but her expression had changed.

"I want to see her!" she said angrily.

"There's nothing left to see," Haley answered from behind them before Charlize could open her mouth. All of them turned to Haley, surprised at her words.

"They burn the dead so that the infection doesn't spread," Haley explained. Charlize was taken aback at her friends explanation. She had not known. Only now did it occur to her that she had never wondered what the soldiers did with the dead bodies.

Ofelia covered her mouth with her hands as a sob escaped her lips, and Daniel went up to her and embraced his daughter.

Charlize turned away from them, giving them as much privacy as she could so they could mourn their loss. She saw that Madison had gone over to where Haley was standing. Travis was standing in a corner with the man in the suit. Nick was standing a step or two behind his mother, and Charlize started walking toward him. He was wearing a beige jacket over a white shirt, both dirty. His hair looked messy and she could see that he was still sweating. She wondered whether it was from the running or from his withdrawal.

"Are you okay?" she asked as she walked over to him. Instead of answering, Nick took a step forward and put both of his arms around her. He held her tight and pressed his temple against hers. She mirrored the gesture and put her arms around him, using her right hand to gently stroke his back.

"It's okay," she whispered.

"I'm sorry," he whispered. "I'm sorry...I'm sorry."


Charlize took a deep breath before opening the heavy door to the parking garage. On the way to the emergency ward Travis had told them that Alicia, Chris and Liza were waiting on the parking deck with three cars, packed and ready to head east. Then, Nick told them that the man he was with was called Victor Strand, and he had saved his life. Afterwards, there was no time for talking. They had found Dr. Exner in the infirmary. She had been sitting down on one of the cots, holding the captive bolt in her right hand. While Haley and Madison had been raiding the cabinets for all the medication they could carry, Charlize had tried to talk the Doctor into coming with them. "There is nowhere to go," was the only thing the woman had answered. She was eerily calm, her face pointed straight ahead. Not once did she look at Charlize while they were talking. She was lost. When Charlize realized that the room was too quiet, she saw that Dr. Exner had already killed all of the patients with the bolt. There was no more heavy breathing, no more sounds from heart monitors. It was the merciful way. Begrudgingly, she let Nick pull her away when they had gathered all the supplies. It was hard to leave the Doctor, and while she was taking a last look back, she had seen that Dr. Exner was raising the captive bolt and pointing it at her forehead. Charlize shuddered.

Now, Charlize was pushing all her weight against the heavy door, forcing it open with a bang. She immediately raised both of her hands, pointing the gun at whatever scene might await her at the other side of the door. But there was nothing. She tentatively took a few steps into the parking deck, looking left and right, but it was empty except for two cars. One was Madison's, the other one was Travis's truck. With a relieved sigh she dropped her gun, put the safety in place and tucked the gun back into the waistband of the jeans she was wearing underneath her scrubs. Travis hurried past her.

"Chris?" he shouted. "Liza?"

For a moment, there was silence. Then, a small door opened at the opposite site of the garage and Chris poked his head out. Visibly relieved, he came out, followed by Liza and Alicia. He jogged to his father, and when the two groups met in front of the cars, Chris told them that the third car they had come with had been taken by soldiers. He was visibly shaken, even though he tried to hide it. His left eye was starting to bruise. One of the soldiers must've struck him. Alicia was standing with her mother, exchanging a relieved hug. Charlize looked from person to person, appreciating for a moment that all of them had made it out alive; that against all odds, Haley and her had found Nick, and the rest of the family had found them. She wondered how Madison and Travis had found the compound when Travis told the group that it was time to leave.

They did not get far.

Charlize turned around and started heading to the truck - Haley walking to her left, Nick walking to her right - when a man stepped out of the shadows of Madison's car. He was wearing cargo pants and a dark green shirt, it was obvious he was military, but his right forearm was heavily bandaged. Charlize stopped in her tracks, as did the others. The man was carrying a gun and was pointing it at the group. Charlize's heart started pounding in her chest again. The man looked angry. Did he want one of the cars? She was studying his face, his arm, when all of a sudden, he disappeared. Charlize had concentrated so hard on him that for a moment, she didn't realize that the reason she could not see the man anymore, was that Nick had slowly taken a few steps to the side, placing himself in between her and the gun. She tentatively took one small step to the right, so she could see the man over Nick's shoulder. Charlize saw now that the soldier was pointing the gun at Daniel Salazar.

"Salazar," he said. His voice was deep. He sounded like he was threatening Daniel. How did they know each other?

"Andy?" Ofelia asked quietly. She had been sitting on the floor, leaning against a pillar, but now she was slowly getting up. Charlize wondered if this was the soldier Ofelia had kept sneaking off with to make out back in the safe zone.

The soldier took a few steps forward, his eyes glued on Daniel. He moved one of his fingers and the gun cocked.

"Ofelia," Daniel said and raised one of his hands in defense. He slowly moved to his left, trying to put his body in front of Ofelia, like Nick had just done with Charlize, but the distance between him and his daughter was too great.

"Andrew, put the gun down," Travis said. He tried to sound as persuasive as he could, but it did not seem to work on Andrew. "You don't have to do this, okay?" Travis continued. "What are you doing? Just put the gun down."

"You don't have do to this," Daniel echoed. His sounded more stern and less pleading than Travis.

The words did not bother Andrew. He kept moving forward slowly, threateningly, like a predator stalking his prey. Nobody else moved. Then, everything happened too quickly. In the last moment, a menacing smile formed on Andrews lips, and a second later he moved his arm to the right and released the trigger. Ofelia was quick enough to anticipate what he was doing and ducked just in time.

But behind Ofelia, Liza dropped to the ground. Everybody was frozen in shock as her white shirt turned red; her eyes open but not seeing anymore.